You might find it hard to believe but our very own news satire site, the Pan-Arabia Enquirer, has launched its first ever “groundbreaking exhibition” (their words, not ours) in Dubai.
Called Dalai Lama In Bananarama Karama Shawarma Drama: A Retrospective, the exhibition, which opened on Monday at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre (Ductac), features “artefacts from the website’s rich and illustrious publishing history”, say organisers.
Billed as “The World’s Only seven-star Satirical News Source”, the Pan-Arabia Enquirer has quickly built a fan base in the region with its outlandish and believable stories, with many readers reacting, often seriously, to its headlines.
“I basically came across the Pan-Arabia Enquirer as I thought they were Dubizzle and I was trying to sell a sideboard. When I realised they were actually a satirical website, I thought it might be quite a good idea to ask them to come up with something for us. How wrong I was,” says Simon Coates, the general manager of Ductac.
Although the guys behind the website work anonymously, tabloid! managed to pull some strings for an exclusively interview with one of them.
How do we know your event is for real and that you’re not just leading us on?
You’ll just have to take our word for it, just as a worrying number of readers do of our stories.
How many artworks are you bringing for this retrospective?
We’ve got somewhere in the region of 10-20. But there’s so much more than just artworks. We consider Dalai Lama In Banarama Karama Shawarma Drama: A Retrospective a fully-immersive luxury platinum five-star lifestyle experience, minimum table spend Dh10,000.
Was it difficult to pick from your long and illustrious history?
It was exceptionally difficult to choose and resulted in countless sleepless nights and heated arguments. Hopefully our team of curators and experts have managed to select the perfect artefacts and exhibits to showcase the main highlights from The Pan-Arabia Enquirer’s rich and colourful history. Such as the time we got half the world to believe Emirates were launching shisha lounges on their A380s.
For people who might not be familiar with the Pan-Arabia Enquirer’s status as the world’s only seven-star news source, please give us a bit of background.
In a word, The Pan-Arabia Enquirer is the only news publication in the region that isn’t afraid to tell the stories that really matter, like Salik toll gates being installed on the Safa Park running track, the ruins of an ancient mall found beneath modern day Dubai and the chaos that erupted at a Champagne party after guests were sprayed with the wrong vintage. Other publications barely scratch the surface when it comes to true investigative journalism.
Why are the editors so difficult to pin down?
Being the editor of The Pan-Arabia Enquirer is one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. Few have made it to the second week. As such, we prefer to remain out of the public eye.
What would you like people to take away from this exhibition?
Please don’t take anything away from this exhibition and should you see anyone taking anything away, please contact security immediately.
Dalai Lama In Bananarama Karama Shawarma Drama: A Retrospective is currently on at Ductac, Mall of the Emirates, from 9am to 10pm (Fridays, 2pm to 10pm). For more, go to ductac.org.
